Tree Tents Bring Ewok Village to Life

Backwoods camping may have just moved into the realm treehouse air dwelling with the latest offering from the English company Tentsile.

Imagine a collection of tents, all strung between trees, 20 feet up, stacked, like some that is part Ewok village, part Avatar habitat, and mostly all the kind of thing anyone who grew up looking for the most remote and perspective altering experience in the wilderness.

That is what Tentsile does. They’re a start up company from Great Britain that took the concept of tree tents and turned it into an in-demand operation, selling out of stock with regularity.

As the name suggests, Tentsile tents use ratcheting straps to affix the triangular shelter to three anchor points, creating a trampoline-like surface, upon which sits the tent.

Designed by Alex Smith, an architect who as a child was actually blown away by the Ewok villages in the film, Return of The Jedi, the tents most certainly allow ambers to build a multi-level habitat below the forest canopy. His use of tensioned surfaces became the cornerstone of the product.

But it took some time to develop the idea into a viable consumer product. After a few attempts, and some very large versions, Tentsile sold it’s first stingray model in 2013, bit it wasn’t until the next year the REI began selling them.

These days, Tentsile enjoys a solid position among not only remote campers, but travelers who want a little more unique position.

But maybe the coolest part of the tents is their stackable modular capability. These tents certainly make use of vertical real estate, and let campers create their own world. With a growing popularity, be sure to look up a little more often when you’re out backpacking. You just might glimpse the future of backcountry shelter.